Foundation Chair Chris Pritchett's Studio Showcase

This week in the Cowgill Lobby, students in Foundation Chair Chris Pritchett's studio showcased their work from two different projects, "House of Asterion" and "Monopolyville".

House of Asterion:

This project centered on the fundamental aspect of architecture - the opening - which plays a significant role in shaping our understanding of space. An opening is typically recognized as a window or door, a feature that provides a regulated link between a building's interior and exterior. More conceptually, an aperture can be understood as a frame, threshold, portal, passage, oculus, cleft, chasm, gap, valve or void. Using the short story by Jorge Luis Borges, students designed a facade to the entry of the minotaur's labyrinth. Design decisions were based on lines of site, light paths, and context.

Monopolyville:

The project is a series of constructs based on attributes from the board game 'Monopoly'. Each student was responsible for an individual construct however they were tasked with working as a community to find commonalities both in form and in narrative. The town illustrates each person's ideologies about the role each part of a town plays in developing cohesion among all collaborating elements. Centrally, there is a maze that represents the difficulties in navigating the connections within a society. Throughout the modelling process, students working on neighboring squares integrated aspects of each concept, to physically link various apertures between projects. 

Students brought their designs to life not only through physical models, drawings, and Rhino but also in Fortnite using Unreal Engine, using the game as an interactive platform to explore their "town" at full scale. This digital adaptation allowed them to walk through their constructs, experience spatial relationships firsthand, and engage with the maze and apertures in real-time-bridging the gap between conceptual design and immersive experience.

"Using Fortnite as a form of media is really interesting. It's a game-changer for showcasing models and allows designers to engage with clients anywhere in the world."

Experience their work yourself using the map code:

0974-3578-1867